WASHINGTON – The Alliance to Save Energy released the following statement from President Jason Hartke in response to the EPA’s announcement of a proposed rule regarding coal power plants:

“As we’ve said from the outset, undoing the Clean Power Plan would be a step backward for energy efficiency. Today’s proposal not only undercuts the tremendous economic and environmental benefits that could have come from expanding energy efficiency solutions but is also predicted to have minimal impact in reducing emissions.”

“Under the Clean Power Plan, states were poised to deploy energy efficiency at a greater scale to cost-effectively achieve their targets. Consumers and businesses would have seen meaningful savings from those energy-efficiency improvements. As the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective compliance mechanism available, energy efficiency gave states a powerful and flexible means to meet their obligations, save consumers money and create economic opportunity at the same time. For the average American family, electric bills in 2030 were estimated to decline $7 per month as a result of the previous plan.”

“Unfortunately, today’s proposal throws all those cost-effective energy saving opportunities out the window.”

Background:

The EPA published the final rule for the Clean Power Plan (CPP) in 2015 to reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil fuel power plants by 32% in 2030. The rule set targets for each state to reduce its emissions, allowing wide flexibility in how the target is met. In October 2017, the EPA proposed to repeal the rule.

As part of the CPP, the EPA initiated a Clean Energy Incentive Program (CEIP), which includes incentivizing early deployment of energy efficiency projects in low-income communities – an important tool to help states move quickly toward initial emissions reduction targets. The Alliance submitted comments to the EPA urging improvements to the program to facilitate the maximum early deployment of cost-effective energy efficiency measures benefiting the broadest population.

About the Alliance to Save Energy

Founded in 1977, the Alliance to Save Energy is a nonprofit, bipartisan alliance of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders working to expand the economy while using less energy. Our mission is to promote energy productivity worldwide – including through energy efficiency – to achieve a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and greater energy security, affordability and reliability.